The Dynamic Daughter will be 14 soon. She is a delight to have around but she can also be emotionally exhausting. She has been diagnosed with Cyclothymia in the last 12 months and this has been an excellent explanation of her whole life. Cyclothymia is a mild form of bipolar. She has always been extreme in her emotions but unlike bipolar these extremes come and go fairly quickly. The paediatrician who diagnosed her also said that these people usually have an incredible empathy for others and a willingness to help and this is so true of her. Like any teenager she can be selfish, rude and difficult but her ability to care for and think of others is amazing.
Her birth was, as was her brother's, not easy so after 14 hours of unsuccessful labour she was born by cesarean section. It was a lot less traumatic than her brother's birth and she weighed a healthy 9lb 6oz or 4250g. But unfortunately, we had to have drama didn't we? At the age of 3 days the Dynamic Daughter developed a fever and started to twitch and jitter. For the next four days this twitching baby was kept in a humidicrib and subjected to all sorts of tests. Her life was never in danger but her quality of life was in question. It turned out to be a virus and she recovered from it. It took a few days for the Dynamic Daughter to stop flinching when she was touched because she had had many heel pricks for blood tests and a lumbar puncture.
When the Young Negotiator was a baby he was relaxed and happy when I left the room. He would amuse himself beautifully with his fingers, toes or whatever. Not so the Dynamic Daughter. Illogically, I thought they would be the same but they could not have been more opposite. The Young Negotiator, who was almost three when she was born, and I called her the hungry hungry hippo. Luckily he had plenty of patience. I was feeding this baby every 1.5 - 2 hours. Her appetite was insatiable. Her ability to be alone was negligible and her reaction to my leaving a room was instant. She screamed! But she was more or less a healthy and happy baby. After checking with the early childhood sister I started her on solids at three months just to get her to fill up.
Cyclothymia explains her early life beautifully. I think if I had had 10 children I would have realised she was extreme but I only had the two. People often said that boys are so much harder than girls to raise and I would always laugh at that.
At the age of three the Dynamic Daughter developed a habit of fainting. The first time she did it was at daycare while I was at work and she even stopped breathing. She had a battery of tests but all seemed normal. Eventually we worked out that the fainting was associated with blood or the discussion of blood whether it was hers or belonged to someone else. The nurse at daycare also realised that she was not walking properly. Through more referrals and physiotherapy visits it was discovered that she had a left-sided weakness and her fine motor skills were poor. Like her grandfather, uncles and myself the Dynamic Daughter has a tremor in the hands. All of this was not insurmountable. It was to make life interesting though. There were many faints up until late primary school age and then for some reason they stopped. (They have come back with the advent of hormones and when she experiences extreme anxiety). If we were quick enough we could talk her out of them. I know one day we were crossing a road on the way to the movies and I was holding both their hands. All three of us had been fooling around but when we started to cross at the crossing I asked them to stop. The Dynamic Daughter chose to ignore this advice and continued, only to trip me up. I fell on top of her on the road. My fall was cushioned by her little body but she unfortunately was bleeding and under my weight. Her injuries were not serious but she kept saying "I'm going to faint" over and over. We were in the middle of the road, it was hot, I had a little boy on one side and this over dramatic person on the other and I am thinking I don't think I can carry her (my back was crap). In my bestest and sternest voice I told her that if she fainted she would not get to go to the movies and we would just go home. The Dynamic Daughter recovered in record time.
When she was about four I took her to see The Hooley Dooleys concert (like the Wiggles) with a friend and her daughter. The concert was excellent and the kids loved it. The Dynamic Daughter was so excited that in the middle of a song where all the kids were dancing she commenced screaming louder and louder and more hysterically until it was like her head exploded and she collapsed in a sobbing heap on the ground. We were stunned. I held her on my lap and she cried and trembled for a good five minutes. That was the cyclothymia, it makes sense now.
At primary school she was over enthusiastic and her extreme excitement and enthusiasm made it socially hard for her. She had friends and got on with some of the other kids but would go into overdrive making it hard for some kids to cope. The Dynamic Daughter would come home from school and talk in such a manic way about everything that it was exhausting. But in a matter of seconds her mood could change to absolute sorrow and she would be crying inconsolably.
This little girl had amazing ambition and did very well in school. One parent told me that she would be voting for her one day. Her future plans were many and varied but were always very elaborate and exotic. The one ambition I remember her having was to be a Super Hero.
Children can learn fairly quickly what their peers will accept and adjust accordingly. The Dynamic Daughter took a little longer than most. As she got older she was able to adjust her behaviour to fit in. This change in personality in itself was tough, it was not the real her and this could possibly have lead to the depression she was to suffer for nearly two years in high school.
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